Asma, who comes from Metz, France, and originated from Morocco, mixes RnB, Afrobeats , and Soul. We’ll uncover where her passion for singing came from, her biggest influences and her daily life being an RnB singer.
How did you come up with Asma as your stage name?
Firstly, Asma is my first name; the music is myself, and myself is music. So I didn’t see any point in finding another stage name. My name is my essence.
Upon my research, I saw that you loved to sing and did some concerts for your family as a child. Did you know you wanted to be a singer since then and how did this come to be?
I loved to sing. I’m not from a family of musicians, but my family listened to a lot of music. My grandmother, who raised me, listened to a lot of Arabic classics like Farid El Atrache.
Moreover, my uncles listened to a lot of US rap like West Coast and RnB artists. I think this is how I developed a passion for music. I remember the old times when my grandma was pushing me to sing for her. Even yesterday I watched an old cassette where my mom bought us a WiFi channel for karaoke and my mom told me to sing my little songs.
Did you ever live in Morocco?
No, I was born in France, but each summer we went the whole holiday to Morocco and spent the whole time with my grandmother and family. My grandma always spoke to me in Arabic.
Have you ever thought about creating music in Arabic?
Of course, I always thought about doing it; we are working on a small project now. Even in my singing style, you’ll notice that I have some Arabic melodies.
I saw that from your melodies and your inspiration comes from Aaliyah, Beyonce, D’Angelo… Who would you say are your biggest inspirations?
I think I’d speak more about melodies and music styles than a specific artist. I love to find some Arabic melodies in my music and jazzy sonorities so I would say Oum Khaltoum and John Coltrane.
The more I grow up, the more I want to listen to real music. I want to find this in my own music, a lot of soul melodies too like Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, Michael Jackson…
RnB is one of my favorite music genres, my inspirations were and still are from the 90s DiAngelo, Aaliyah, Faith Evans, Brandy and more recently Summer Walker, Ari Lennox, Bryson Tiller…
For us, Arabic people, many of our parents love to watch Bollywood movies. Thus, I grew up watching movies that lasted 4 hours with a lot of music, dances… So that’s the reason why you’ll listen to a lot of indie melodies in my topline sonorities.
That’s incredible because this creates a whole unique style by mixing all these genres.
Speaking of your lyrics, I noticed that you write a lot about love stories or love in general… How do you find all these inspirations?
It doesn’t necessarily come from my own life, for a long time it didn’t at all.
I feel like I got attached to RnB and jazz types of music because it speaks about love, and we as human beings need love.
That’s why I feel like I got more attached to this musical style. It’s not forced, it comes along with the melody I create. It goes out naturally, I mostly got inspired by my friend’s love stories. I feel like everyone got inspired by what’s going on in their lives, and most of them are good love stories, stories we can’t forget.
So firstly you are creating the melodies with your producer, and then write lyrics down?
Yes, I would top line on a production we’ve created together with my producer. I’ll then begin to write down some lyrics.
It was only on Bodycall that I directly wrote the lyrics and the melody came later, it was the same for “tu dead ça”.
The most important for me is the melody, that’s why I begin with that. The words will come naturally to me if I vibe with the melody, no matter the language, it could even be Mandarin…
For instance, I didn’t understand anything about the Indian music lyrics, but just the way she sang with the melody made me dream.
So do you listen to Mandarin music as well?
No not at all but I should begin doing that. especially in Asia, they play a lot with Jazzy melodies and their arrangements are really soft “mielleux” as I love it.
3 words to describe your music
Mielleuse (honeyed), sincere and sensual
It totally matches with your new EPs name “Parfum Sucre”, sweet perfume
I saw that you also made collabs in your new EP with Ruthee
I also did collaborations with Gabriel as well. He did the whole production, composition etc and he’s also an artist.
Ruthee is like a sister to me, we even did a french version of The Boy is Mine in my new album.
Who would you like to bring on your new project?
There are so many artists I would love to collaborate with. I firstly would say Summer Walker
Regarding some French artists, I would definitely bring Hamza on a track, as I am a big fan of him.
There are a lot of other talented artists I would love to bring to the table, like Laylow, Josman…
In your first released song named Teresa, you filmed the video clip in Brazil. How did this come to be?
I am the president of an association to encourage artistic practice in working-class neighborhoods. For 2 years, we developed internationally and our first project was in Rio, more specifically in Morro da Providência – the first Brazilian favela.
I went there with a whole team including a filmmaker named Jeffrey who makes all my visuals. There, I directly thought about shooting a video clip, as it was so cool and relaxed, and the people were so friendly.
I did the same for Bodycall in Madagascar during our second humanitarian trip.
And was this planned?
Not at all! It made its way there directly because we had some spare time.
What were the biggest challenges you’ve encountered?
I put out many projects but then I needed to take a break in 2021, because I was growing up musically and I found my own style and what I wanted for myself. I was looking for what my audience wanted to see of me.
There’s one thing in music that’s so important to me: it’s the magic. There’s some chords that make you feel a certain way, and with all the productions they sent me, I couldn’t feel it, I couldn’t feel the magic.
It’s important to find people that understand you in the long run.
The encounter with Gabriel was so magical, we directly clicked together. It was supernatural. He’s now my producer and I’m his artist. We created this project together and we’ll even work on the next one together.
The most important and challenging part is to find people who totally understand you and have the same vision as you, and sensibility.
I need to take this small break to determine my artistic direction, and center myself to rework my whole vision. It’s thanks to my manager that we met, we directly clicked and liked the same song. Firstly I couldn’t believe it, he knows all the music I like.
The best thing I could have done is listened to myself.
Which project holds a special place in your heart and why?
My last project is really my baby, my music. Usually, when you release an EP you’ve listened to your music too much but this time it didn’t happen. My favorite project would be Rooftape in 2021 because it was the time I really pushed myself and when I listen to it it brings me back to the old times when I was at the very beginning of my career.
What do you want your listeners to feel when they listen to your songs?
My music has a whole mood, and when you listen to it, it puts you in a special mood where you feel at peace. And I want music to bring up this feeling of peace. I don’t want to speak especially about bad or sad things. I want music to be like therapy for my listeners.
Do you plan on releasing projects for the end of the year?
We’re preparing a small project that will be released before the end of the year. I got the chance to collaborate with Killertunes, a Nigerian composer who worked with Tems, Wizkid… and there’s going to be more feats and singles but it’s going to be a surprise.
Is there going to be a lot of afro beats then?
There are going to be a few yes, but I’ll mostly lean on RnB beats. Parfum Sucré was an introduction, now we’re stepping in the real game.
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
I’d love to live life from my music and to have a label that is successful. I’d love to have a fanbase that is faithful to me and my music, like Luidji’s
In 5 years, I want to have nice feedback that my music makes my listeners feel good, and to give to my people what they gave to me.
Do you see yourself doing some concerts?
I don’t want to give myself objectives like to sell out a Bercy stadium, but to have some real shows and make a tour, yes of course.
What does True Urban Culture mean to you?
I hear it’s like a true culture with its own essence, a media that’ll speak about artists who have true and big dreams. It’s not only about hip-hop, but about a group that covers many other genres.
You can listen to Asma’s new EP Parfum Sucré on all plaforms:
Parfum sucré – Album par Asma | Spotify
Asma’s Instagram:
